Patym enabling phones to accept contactless payments

New Delhi: Digital payments giant PayTm has launched two new provision for easy digitized transactions for merchants, targeting 50 lakh Internet of Things (IoT) devices countrywide.

Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder and CEO, Paytm, unveiled two new features brought in by the company, Soundbox 2.0 and Paytm Smart POS, for Android phones.

The new Paytm Smart POS app, available for Android users, will allow the retailer and merchants to use their smartphones to accept contactless credit card and debit card payments to complete the transaction. The company has designed this app in partnership with Visa, Master Card and RuPay. Earlier this year, the Reserve Bank of India announced to increase the limit for contactless card transactions from Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000.

The multi-lingual user interface will allow an end user to avail the feature in 11 different languages and carry out a contact less transaction for home delivery services as well as physical stores.

"Paytm is committed to bringing new-age financial technologies and services to 5 crore small and micro-merchants in India. Today's launch of Soundbox 2.0 and Smart POS for Android phones expands opportunities for small businesses to experience these latest technologies at the most affordable price," Paytm founder Vijay said during the launch of the two new technologies. The company first introduced digitized payment via QR code in 2013, post which it has introduced several new digital payment provisions.

Bringing an upgradation to its SoundBox 1.0, launched in 2019, the SoundBox 2.0 is a "Made In India" product that now comes equipped with a digitally enabled screen to provide the merchant with instant visual confirmation of the paid amount along with the voice-based response. Merchants can also tap the 'function button' twice to fetch the payment summary for the entire day. With this new upgradation, the company has increased its monthly subscription amount from Rs 125 per month to Rs 150 per month.

Dilip Asbe, MD and CEO of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), said, "I believe, this kind of frugal innovations truly connects Indian small merchants with digital payments and aids tremendously to create trust. NPCI strongly believes that our dream of enabling a billion transactions a day can only be achieved if all of us come together to help the ecosystem grow."